Make the most of Google Now with these voice commands

Google Now's "OK Google" voice search is a virtual assistant that provides you with what you need to know, when you need to know it. Whether you're checking the weather, setting reminders or searching for flight information, Google Now is there to help hands-free. Here we have a list of 100 useful Google Now voice commands, all of which you can try today to make your life easier. Plus, we explain what Google Assistant is, and why it's so revolutionary.

To use Google Now, you must first have the app installed. If you want to make Google Now more accessible, go to your app drawer and hit Google Settings > Search & Now > Voice > OK Google detection and enable From any screen. This means you can say "OK Google" whenever your phone is awake to launch the Google Now voice search.

If your phone runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Google settings are now found in the Settings menu, not in the app drawer. If you're too lazy to scroll this list, you can also access a list of voice commands on your phone by tapping the mic and saying "show me what you got".

App-specific commands

“Send a [WhatsApp] message to [Scott Adam Gordon]” (you'll also have to say “Yes” to send the transcribed message) This same voice command works with WhatsApp, WeChat, Telegram, Hangouts, Viber and NextPlus and there is a variety of possible formats: “Send a [Telegram] message to [Paul]” “Send a [WhatsApp] to [Chris]” “Send a message with [NextPlus]” “Send a message to [Mom] with [Viber]”

Remember your preferred apps

If you say something such as, “OK Google, scan my receipt in [Walmart]”, Google will automatically open the Walmart app to scan your receipt. If, however, you don't mention the app and just say “OK Google, scan my receipt”, Google will pop up a window offering you a few options.

If you repeatedly choose the same one (in this case, the Walmart app), Google will learn that you prefer to scan receipts with the Walmart app and will automatically launch that in the future when you say, “OK Google, scan my receipt”.

Weather

“Weather” “Do I need an umbrella today?" “What's the weather like?" “Is it going to rain [tomorrow / Monday]” “What’s the weather in [Boston]?” “How’s the weather in [Portland] on [Wednesday] going to be?”

Maps & navigation

“Map of [Flagstaff]” “Where's my hotel?” “Where is the [Golden Gate Bridge]?” “Find the "Golden Gate Bridge” “Show me the nearby [restaurant] on map” “Navigate to [Munich] on car” “How far is [Berlin] from [Munich]?” “Directions to [address / business name / other destination]” “What are some attractions in [Florence]” “Show me the menu for [Las Iguanas]”

"Fun" commands

“Do a barrel roll” “What’s the loneliest number?” “Make me a sandwich!” “When am I?” “Okay Jarvis, …” (Instead of ”Ok Google, …”) “Who are you?” “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.” “Beam me up, Scotty!” “Tell me a joke” “Askew" or "Tilt” “What is your favourite colour?” “What is the nature of the universe?” “How can entropy be reversed?” “Lions, tigers and bears...” “Who's on first?” “What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?” “Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right” “Tea, earl grey, hot” “What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?” “What is the best smartphone?” “Tell me about yourself” “Go go gadget [app name]” “Flip a coin” “Roll a dice” “What is [James Earl Jones]'s bacon number?” “What does the fox say?” “When does the narwhal bacon?”

Google Assistant

Google Assistant is like Google Now, but way more impressive and natural to use. It's available for those with the Pixel phones and with the Google Allo app that is available on most devices. The interaction is much more conversation-like so Google can understand the context of your commands and provide helpful information proactively.

Before Google Assistant existed, you had to give a bunch of separate commands to get a show to play on your TV. First, you had to tell it to look up "Gilmore Girls on Netflix" then tap the Google Cast button, select the right TV and begin streaming. But with Google Assistant, you can now simply say, "Ok, Google. Play Gilmore Girls in the living room," and it will automatically guess that you implied both the Netflix service and the living room TV even though you didn't say it specifically.

Google Assistant doesn't just perform more fluidly, it understands natural language. You speak to the Google Assistant just like you would to a normal person, and it will understand (and even get better with use!). Download Google Allo now to try the futuristic Google Assistant:

Any idea if I can put my phone in the "Do not disturb" mode provided by Android using a voice command? Something along the lines of "Do not disturb me [for an hour]"? This particular command currently just does a web search. I generally set my alarms using voice commands. It would be great if I could use DND also similarly.

I thought this was a great question so I tried it out. It will automatically pause the song that's currently playing when you say "OK Google" so it can hear you, then switch to the requested song or album, so yes, you can do this. You can also give any other command from the list above, it will listen to you, then start playing the music again as it completes the given command. One thing to remember though, depending on the volume of the song that's currently playing, you may need to say "OK Google" a little louder so it will hear you.

This is great list, I must say. But unfortunately , it works lil bit diff on my laptop but at least I ca speak many commands, like saying OPEN any site just types "open facebook.com". Now all I have to do is click the link but it would be better if it opens the respected site.

We can ask the watch to send a Whatsapp to a person in our phone book but a group is not in our phone book because every member has its number. Is there a command to send a message to a Whatsapp group?

You can also do a continuation of the previous question. Say for example:

Okay Google, how tall is the president of the United States? (It list Obama as of writing this)

after its done.

Okay Google, what about Michael Jordan? Which list him as 6'6 tall. You can skip the how tall is he part and skip to just the subject.

You can also do the same like "distance to Korea from my location, then after it's done, say Okay Google, what about New York? Various combos, like age of a renowned person, after its done: what about Queen Latifah or any other person? However, it won't do objects like : How tall is the Eiffel tower? Followed by specific human.

great post...I use Google voice every day, the more you use the better it gets.it still feels like early days, limited and underdeveloped, OEM's have only just started to include voice related hardware and software, like Motorola with the Moto X.

When I say "Send a WeChat to [Richard X]", it responds with "You don't have an account with [Richard X]". But I do have an account in WeChat with a contact named Richard X. Very odd. Anyone knows a remedy?